Tag: Australia

Group B: land of contrasts. It wasn’t, might we date to venture, supposed to end up like this. Going into the first of the final round of group matches, it was supposed to be all about the tension and the excitement of two simultaneous matches being played, but the way in which this group has panned out means that we kick off the final round of group matches – and the sleep deprived amongst us are at least cheering the fact that the last of the eleven o’clock kick offs has now come and gone – with matches that...

There has seldom in the entire history of the World Cup been a week like this. Last night, holders Spain crashed out of the tournament at the very first hurdle following a chastening defeat at the hands of a Chile team that is starting to look capable of going all the way this summer. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Australia are also eliminated from the competition after a thrilling match against the Netherlands in which they took the first team to put Spain to the sword all the way in a match that will be long...

So here we are again folks, another day, another game. The Dutch are unbeaten in their last eleven World Cup group games, Robin van Persie has scored ten in the last nine games he’s played in BUT they’ve never beaten the lowest ranked team in the competition. You’ve got Jenni and Rob to keep you company during the game. *technically they’ve only played friendlies. You can follow Jenni Silver on Twitter here. You can follow Rob on Twitter here. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter...

The first big concern in this one is whether Chile’s star midfielder Arturo Vidal is fit and able to play tonight. The Juventus player has been struggling with inflammation in his right knee following an operation on his meniscus last month and was expected to be out for the whole of the group phase. They are far from a one man band though, as their third place finish in the South American qualifying section shows. They ended the campaign just four points behind Argentina, three ahead of Uruguay and now sit 14th in the FIFA rankings – above the...

The optimism that accompanied Australia to previous World Cup finals has been replaced in 2014 by something of a sense of foreboding, as Paul Caulfield writes. As Brazil 2014 gets going, Australian football fans will be trying to forget the fraught process of actually getting there. Though the Socceroos are safely through to their third successive finals – the tortuous route, through two group stages and 14 matches, was worryingly familiar. Some patchy results – including a defeat to Jordan and a draw with Oman – saw Australia stumble through to Brazil, securing the vital second place in the six team CONMEBOL group with a narrow win over Iraq. Second half substitute Josh Kennedy of Grampus Eight (Jesus to his team-mates, thanks to his ‘biblical’ appearance) scored the vital goal before 80,000 at Sydney’s ANZ stadium, heading in a Mark Bresciano cross with just eight minutes left, though Kennedy failed to make the cut when the final squad was announced. The huge turnout showed the Australian appetite for the big occasion, but Socceroos fans will know that such victories are no basis for success in Brazil. Australia’s opponents in a horrible Group B – the Netherlands, Chile and number one ranked Spain – will be far tougher than a team 46 places below them in the rankings. The Chileans are old foes from 40 years ago, but a repeat...